I'm not ready to let Bruce Springsteen go... (see previous post).
I really, really enjoyed reading Bruce's insights on performing live, and recording music in the studio. Nothing is casual. It's the most important stuff. Performance is like Communion: a holy, sacred thing. Even if you're up on a tiny stage for a few folks bashing out an indelicate version of "Louie, Louie." It's a "you" and "them" thing, making one grand, glorious "one."
And if you've ever been in a "big-time recording studio," (by big-time I mean, can a band, with a full drum-kit, bass, guitar & percussion all play together in one room with a singer in a separate booth coming thru headphones?) you will greatly appreciate the stories of Bruce and the E Street Band on their journey together thru recording sessions for "Born to Run," and "Darkness on the Edge of Town."
If you've been there, (I've recorded two records with whitewolfsonicprincess in a big-time studio), lots of good stuff from Bruce on the process of getting a good guitar or drum sound. The essential things. And when he talks about spending uncountable hours, days, weeks, years in the studio, well, it will ring a bell for sure for anyone who has been there. Mixing? Did you say mixing?! Do you have any idea what is hidden within that little word, mixing?! If you haven't done it, you just don't know, but if you have, you do, you surely, surely do.
There is a magic alchemy of elements that can reveal the essence of a song. Sometimes it happens just once. Lightening. A butterfly. A cloud. A vapor trail. Each sound has it's frequency, it's place, there are infinite possibilities, choices, and it's all up to your ears, your engineer's technical proficiency, and your "creative sensibilities."
You realize the little things, tiny things, the almost over-looked things can have seismic consequences. That's in the studio, and in life too. So anyway, yes, Bruce. Still rattling around in my head.